pretty little girls
by wild wolf free17
Summary: "You should be more careful, Gothel," Maleficent says one day, raven on her shoulder and staff in hand, watching the sunrise with a cold smile. [Dark AU]


Title: pretty little girl (growing up so mean)

Fandom: Tangled/Disney's Sleeping Beauty

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: DARK AU, sexual abuse of a child, character death, violence

Pairings: Gothel/Rapunzel

Rating: R

Wordcount: 700

Point of view: third

Prompt: Tangled, Rapuzel + Mother Gothel,

_'Cause I was your angel  
Talking a good game  
The same one you taught me to play  
You kept me in cages  
With gilded spaces  
Too small for me to stay_

_Now I'm falling away_  
_Falling away now_  
_And I'm sorry darling_  
_But I've broken it down_  
_And I need to see this through_

-of Verona, The Enemy

* * *

Gothel can use magic, but _she_ is not magic. For years she used a flower that wasn't hers; and then i_or years_ she kept a pretty little girl in a pretty little cage and stole magic after magic after magic.

But pretty little girls grow up into pretty women, and things change.

...

"You should be more careful, Gothel," Maleficent says one day, raven on her shoulder and staff in hand, watching the sunrise with a cold smile.

Maleficent knows all about pretty little girls who become pretty women.

"Oh, pish tosh," Gothel dismisses. "The girl's mine through and through."

Maleficent shrugs, watching Gothel ride away. Gothel is young yet; Maleficent is ancient. Gothel will either learn or die. It matters not.

"Visit the tower every now and then, my pet," she tells her raven. "When the time has come, let me know."

Oh, yes, Maleficent knows all about pretty little girls.

...

Rapunzel _is _magic. When she realizes what Mother's touch means, when she learns that it is herself _Mother_ has been stealing for longer than she can remember, when the tower ceases to be home (it never ever was) and becomes a cage...

Mother loves Rapunzel's hair. She spends hours stroking it, singing to it, and Rapunzel has to sit in silence, has to endure when Mother's hands wander from the gold strands to pale, perfect skin.

The one time Pascal tried to defend her, Mother flung him against the wall and held Rapunzel back, clutched tight to her breasts, and by the time she was done, Pascal had died.

Rapunzel never tried to befriend any of the creatures of the surrounding trees after that.

...

The raven sits on the windowsill for hours, watching.

Rapunzel watches him in return, instead of feeling Mother, instead of hearing Mother, instead of doing anything to please Mother.

The raven leaves as silently as he arrived, and Rapunzel closes her eyes.

...

"Is it yet time, my pet?" Maleficent coos, stroking the raven's back.

_No, beloved_, the raven replies.

...

The truth comes to Rapunzel late one night while she's humming Mother's favorite song and brushing her hair.

So she grabs her shears and savagely cuts all the golden magic off.

...

Mother screams at her, slaps her, strangles her.

Rapunzel's hair is shorn close and brown where before it all been golden. She laughs at Mother's anger, smiles at Mother's tears, and when it is spent, when Mother is sobbing and holding her close, stroking for hair that isn't there –

It is then that Rapunzel strikes.

...

Gothel dies with a gasp, eyes wide, expression betrayed. She sags in Rapunzel's grip and Rapunzel lets her fall.

Rapunzel walks to the window, orphaned twice over, and her fingers flare with golden light because no longer does anyone steal her magic. All of it is hers, as it always should've been. All of it is hers, singing, and she jumps out, into the air, where all is golden and all is free.

...

After sunset, when Rapunzel lands to rest, a woman is waiting. She looks nothing like Gothel.

"Hello, child," the woman says; the raven on her shoulder croaks and Rapunzel almost understands.

"I'll not be used again," Rapunzel tells them both, her skin glowing golden.

The woman laughs. "I don't need your magic, child," she says. "I have all the powers of Hell at my command."

"Good," Rapunzel says, and when the woman holds out hand, Rapunzel takes it.

...

Rapunzel is a natural; she reminds Maleficent of herself, centuries ago.

The pretty little girl still has far to go, but she will grow into a sorceress the world shall fear.

Rapunzel's familiar is a dragonet she finds in a dark cave; Rapunzel names him Pascal and Maleficent never explains the smile she wears anytime she sees him.

...

When Flynn Rider climbs into the tower, he finds a rotting corpse and nothing else.

He's caught by the king's men and dies in prison before being brought to trial.

Rapunzel is a world away, apprenticed to the most feared of all sorceresses, and she neither knows nor cares about the kingdom that still mourns for her.

Maleficent finds the irony delicious, and cannot wait to see what Rapunzel will be.


End file.
